Vampire Template
Vampires were originally mortal human beings, who have been Embraced into undeath. Vampires are created as normal mortal characters, following Steps 1-4 of the World of Darkness character creation process. In Step 5, you apply the Vampire template, as follows: Sanguinus A Vampire's Supernatural Potency is called Sanguinus. A newly-Embraced Vampire begins with a Sanguinus of 1, unless their Sire was particularly potent. Restrain A Vampire replaces her Sanity trait with Restraint, starting at 5 dots as normal. Bloodline The player must now choose a clan and (optionally) a bloodline. Undead Merits The Vampire now gains 5 Merit dots to spend on Undead Merits and Devotions. Three Merit points may be spent to raise Sanguinus by 1, representing a particularly potent Sire. Two Merit points may be spent to raise any one Attribute during character creation, up to a maximum rating of 5. Vampires typically choose the “cream of the crop” to Embrace, as they understand that there will be no improving on the “base stock” during the long Requiem. Any leftover Merit points are added to the character's normal Merit dots in Step 6. Disciplines and Devotions A Vampire begins with one dot in each of her Bloodline's Disciplines. One Merit point may be spent per dot to purchase Discipline Powers and Devotions. Sanguinus Blood Potency has been renamed Sanguinus. Sanguinus determines a character's maximum Vitae pool and maximum Discipline ranks, but in a simpler fashion than in standard Vampire. A character's Vitae pool is equal to 10 + their Sanguinus, and they can spend a number of vitae per turn equal to their Sanguinus. For characters with a Sanguinus rating between 1 and 5, all non-Clan Disciplines are capped by the character's Sanguinus trait, while Clan Disciplines may be purchased up to rank (Sanguinus + 1). Restraint To differentiate the Trait from Promethean's Sanity replacement, the Vampire's version of Sanity is called Restraint, and their version of the “Spirit” fundamental Social Trait is called Drive. A Vampire's human Spirit is gone, and attempts to detect it instead find only the powerful urges of the death-curse. Drive serves the same fundamental purpose as Spirit, but from a very different direction – it is the sum total of the Vampire's social and political ambitions, will to survive, and need to influence others. A Vampire's Morale is equal to their Composure+Drive, and they use Drive rather than Spirit to determine their social “size” and their dice pool bonus for Pushing themselves Socially. A vampire may sustain a total number of Vinculum bonds equal to his Sanguinus + Drive. Once he has created this many thralls, he must release one if he wishes to create another. Hierarchy of Sins Restraint is not Sanity. No Vampire would match the human definition of “sane” in any culture; they are beings of pure predator instinct, barely restrained by the rational understanding that feeding their urges will bring too much unwanted attention. As such, a Vampire's base “hierarchy of sins” is very different than a mortal's. Undead Merits Thrall (• to •••••) – the Thrall Merit operates similarly to the Retainer Merit for Mortals, except that the Thrall is blood-bound to the Vampire through the Vinculum. A Thrall is built using the standard Mortal Template, and is then given one dot of one of their regnant's Bloodline Disciplines. The number of dots in this Merit represent the strength of the Vinculum bond between the thrall and her regnant. Sanguinus and Age For each year that a Vampire remains active, they automatically gain 1 XP towards increasing their Sanguinus. “Earned” XP may be spent to hasten their gain, but it cannot be slowed – once sufficient XP have been gained towards the next level of Sanguinus, it is automatically raised. This means that their Sanguinus will tend to increase more quickly at first, but will slow as they reach higher levels of the Vampiric condition. Regularly drinking from a Vampire with a higher Sanguinus can raise Sanguinus faster – 1 XP per month of regular drinking, with the duration divided by the difference in Sanguinus (thus, 1 XP per two weeks from drinking every night from a being with Sanguinus 2 higher, 1 XP per 10 days for drinking from a being 3 higher, 1 XP per week for drinking from a being 4 higher, and so on). A higher Sanguinus is not always a good thing. Besides the difficulties of finding sustenance, a high Sanguinus brings the Beast higher to the fore – for each dot that Sanguinus exceeds Restraint, the Vampire loses 1 dot from their Resolve + Composure pool to resist frenzy. Luckily, the higher their potency, the more quickly it is eroded by torpor – for each decade the character spends in Torpor, the player must roll their character's Sanguinus. Success means the Vampire's Sanguinus decreases by 1, but the character must spend another decade in Torpor. Failure means the character may roll Resolve + Composure – Sanguinus to attempt to awaken – on a success, the character may choose to awaken and resume their Requiem. The amount of Vitae that can be spent per turn has been re-calibrated, to fall into line with other Supernaturals. Thus, a Vampire with a Sanguinus between 1 and 6 may spend 1 Vitae per turn per point of Sanguinus. However, healing and augmenting Attributes now require more Vitae to accomplish – a single Vitae will raise a single Attribute by 1 dot, heal one bashing level, or convert one lethal level into a bashing level. Five Vitae will convert one aggravated damage level into a lethal level, but this may only be done once per day, during slumber. To offset the higher cost of healing, the process of feeding also automatically heals 1 bashing damage per Vitae gained, or heals 1 lethal damage instead of regaining Vitae, as suggested in Armory Reloaded (Vampire Hack: Revivifying Feeding). Note that this actually makes Vampires slightly more powerful than normal, as they may now spend between twice and three times as much blood as normal, while only some powers' effects are halved. However, this does make Vampires much hungrier. Category:Vampire Category:Template